Thoughts on the Lonely Planet scandal: Guidebooks are a sham

by Jeffrey White on

So, Lonely Planet writer Thomas Kohnstamm, ‘author’ of the guidebook giant’s Colombia title, turns out to be a fraud.

That’s one of the big stories today, as dutifully reported and followed by Gadling’s Aaron. Of course, the travel world has a right to be outraged by this, and that’s including the numerous LP writers out there who simply do what is expected of them and produce honest work.

But I have this question: Who really cares? Is there anyone out there who takes these guidebooks seriously? Who honestly feels his or her confidence in the racket that is the global guidebook industry has been irrevocably shaken? No one? Exactly: We were doubtful from the beginning.

The Kohnstamm revelation further cements in my mind — and I’m betting in a few of yours — the belief that guidebooks are by and large a sham. I know writers for LP, Time Out, Let’s Go, DP and a few others. While certainly I am not suggesting I have first hand knowledge that they are guilty of the kind of intellectual laziness and deceitfulness that should surely turn Thomas Kohnstamm’s name into a punchline, I know them to call in favors, farm out their work, barter, happily receive comps and overall travel in a way that is, well, rather less than incognito (I witnessed once a writer for a well-known guidebook series making a pitiful pitch over e-mail to get a free weekend at a new, five-star Central European hotel by throwing around his title’s name).

This brush is not meant to paint the entire industry and those who write for it. But I’m aiming at a wide enough canvass, those who want to somehow influence our reaction to a place through gross generalizations and trivial detail, while allowing us to fall back on information that somehow always seems to be not quite right – which, of course, the disclaimers more than prepare us for.

Aaron gives us some reasons why we should be outraged by the Kohnstamm affair. They’re thoughtful and well-presented. But we shouldn’t be outraged. And we shouldn’t be surprised.

Guidebooks are the CliffNotes of travel writing, nothing more than a hand-holding exercise. They’re good for a few names and a few addresses, some initial info, and maybe even the surprising fun fact (but you better verify it). Beyond that, they’re useless. They’re often wrong, more often skewed, and they seek to rob you of the only thing you have as a traveler: your impression. How the hell can you come to some conclusion about a place using one of these things? The guidebook views you as an idiot incapable of asking questions: You really can’t figure out how to find a restaurant wherever you are? Stick with it and you’ll be seeing what someone else thinks you should see rather than perhaps what you need to see.

For me to point out the number of times that a guidebook has been wrong would be to point out the well-known. I hope what the Kohnstamm affair really does is to get people thinking long and hard about relying on a guidebook for anything in the first place.

Photo of the Day: 4-13-2008

by Catherine Bodry on


Showoff. Well, okay — that’s pretty cool, and if I could do a back-flip I might be tempted to show off a little, too. TarikB snapped this photo on the north coast of Trinidad. I love the way the back-flipper seems to float effortlessly in the air — check out how relaxed his feet appear to be. Also great is the young lady looking on, and I wonder if she’s the reason he’s doing back-flips.

Have any showy travel photos to share? Upload them to Gadling’s Flickr pool and we’ll consider them for our Photo of the Day feature.

Epic 13-month trip round the world, flight-free

by Iva Skoch on

This sounds like an amazing trip and if I have an ounce of envy in me, this is where it would usually shine.

As he writes in The Guardian, Ed Gillespie has just completed an epic 13-month trip round the world, and he did it all without flying. It took 381 days and 45,000 miles. (Though the circumference of the earth is only around 25,000)

As Gillepsie mentions, flight-free travel is not for everyone. Which is a good thing. It is more time consuming and more costly. The advantages are endless. Most importantly, you stop seeing the journey as purely a mechanistic means of getting to your destination, but rather a part of the whole holiday experience.

“Perhaps it’s understandable that the cattle-truck trauma of budget airline travel has conditioned us to see the journey as the distasteful, stressful but unavoidable topping and tailing of our foreign escapism, but it needn’t be like that. We should enjoy the overland journey as a leisurely seduction to be savored rather than the wham-bam-thank-you-maam instant gratification of flight,” he writes. Envy has definitely set in by now.

You can read his entire travelog at http://www.lowcarbontravel.com/

5 reasons to be outraged by the Lonely Planet fraud

by Aaron Hotfelder on

We reported earlier today on a Lonely Planet writer named Thomas Kohnstamm who admitted to making up large parts of his books, and also said that he had never even been to Colombia, a country he covered for the guidebook series. In case this guy’s behavior hasn’t already pissed you off, here’s five reasons why it should.

5. His sickening sense of entitlement. Kohnstamm’s complaint that LP doesn’t pay its writers enough might be well-founded. I’ve certainly never seen any of the guidebook writers I know driving Ferraris or polishing their bling. But to sabotage your employer because you believe you’re underpaid is stupid. There are literally thousands of people who would love to write for LP, and I’m sure no one was holding a gun to this guy’s head to write these guidebooks. If he didn’t like the terms of employment, he should have quit and let LP find somebody else. It wouldn’t be hard.

4. His shameless self-promotion. In an amazing coincidence, Kohnstamm is set to release a new book next week called Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism. The book, from what I can tell, is the story of how Kohnstamm manages to embody every bad stereotype about travelers there is, and he comes off sounding like a complete boor who’s just dying to tell the world about his unbelievably cool life. Here’s an excerpt:

“The waitress suggests that I come back after she closes down the restaurant, around midnight. We end up having sex in a chair and then on one of the tables in the back corner. I pen a note in my Moleskine that I will later recount in the guidebook review, saying that the restaurant ‘is a pleasant surprise . . . and the table service is friendly.'”

You had sex with a girl? In a foreign country?! Cool!

It’s worth mentioning that his shameless self-promotion is working. News outlets like CNN, Reuters, and many others have picked up the story, always including the name of his new book in their articles. And there’s a picture of it above. More proof that the most effective kind of self-promotion is the purely shameless variety.

3. He undoubtedly led travelers astray. LP reps say they haven’t found any mistakes in Kohnstamm’s books yet. Well, keep looking. Kohnstamm claims he made up large parts of his books, so it’s likely there are quite a few inaccuracies to be found. Tellingly, the author never appears to consider that people are counting on the schedules and recommendations he’s supposed to provide.

Spending the night in a train station because your guidebook messed up the departure times is far from the end of the world. But it also shouldn’t be written off as simply “part of the experience,” especially if it could be easily avoided.

2. He regards the whole affair as a harmless college prank. In his interview with an Australian newspaper, Kohnstamm makes sure to bash LP, but he never apologizes to his readers. Worse, he seems to view his “questionable ethics” as being a real riot, merely fodder for his next book and nothing more.

1. He gives a bad name to all the other Lonely Planet writers out there. As Matthew Firestone, a Gadling contributor and LP writer, said in the comments of our earlier post, this writer’s behavior reflects very poorly on those guidebook writers who tirelessly pound the pavement to check train schedules, review restaurants, and sleep in seedy hostels. If Kohnstamm believes his actions only hurt himself, or his Lonely Planet publisher, he’s dead wrong. His unethical behavior will cause travelers to cast suspicious glances at other guidebook writers, almost all of whom work their asses off.

For more, check out Eva Holland’s article over on Brave New Traveler.

Kashmir to rebrand itself as a golf destination

by Iva Skoch on

Kashmir probably does not evoke emotions of vacationing and relaxation in most people. After 18 years of militant violence, Kashmir wants to rebrand themselves from a heavily militarized Himalayan region to a global golfing destination.

According to this article in the NY Times, Kashmir’s government believes that golf will attract tourists who spend more than the penny-pinching backpackers who still come to trek in the mountains and stay on Srinagar’s latticed wooden houseboats. The state is spending $6.2 million to build a golf course in the winter capital, Jammu, to be completed later in the year, the fifth course in the region, and an international airport is scheduled to open in the summer.

My question is, Is there a country out there, which is supposedly not a golf destination nowadays?